Saga - 1978, Síða 156

150
GÍSLI ÁGÚST GUNNLAUGSSON
could not support themselves through farming. Thirdly emigration
to Canada and USA, which was considerable during this period
(12000—20000 people) created new opportunities for those who
stayed behind. Among those who emigrated were many paupers and
they were often encouraged to emigrate by local governments who
paid the cost of their fare.
Chapter VIII deals with the age of paupers in the year 1901—
1902 as revealed in the Commission’s report. Paupers younger than
40 where U5U, 1080 paupers were between 40 and 70, and 53U were
older than 70 years of age. No information concerning the age of
paupers exists before 1901. The Commission suggested that paup-
ers over 70 should be granted old age pensions by the state, but such
a law was not passed until much later.
Chapter IX deals with the costs involved in the distribution of
poor relief. The costs amounted to 161.131 kr. in 1901, which corre-
sponded to more than a half of the local governments’ budget that
year. Its distribution according to local governments and counties
had somewhat changed from 1870 but was highest in the southem
part otf the country and lowest in the eastem and northern parts.
The reasons behind the paupers’ need for poor relief are discussed
in chapter X. Those most frequently mentioned in the records were
large families, old age, mental illnesses, intemperance, bad health
and the death of a supporter.
In chapter XI the social position of the paupers is discussed. It
is worth noticing that the paupers were looked down upon by soci-
ety during all of the 19th century, despite the fact that a compara-
tively large proportion of the population had to ask for poor relief
in order to support themselves. The paupers were deprived of all
political and economic rights enjoyed by the rest of the population
and they had under all circumstances to obey the local governments.
By the end of the century the attitude towards paupers began to
change. This led to a more general understanding of the need for
a modern social welfare legislation. One of the first to realize this
was Páll Briem, the chairman of the Commission.
The number of paupers in Iceland in the period 1871—1901 clearly
shows that a large proportion of the population was living in condi-
tions where bad harvests and poor fishing seasons could bring
people to the brink of starvation. As Icelandic society undervvent
rapid social changes during the first decades of this century, this
picture changed. The number of paupers kept decreasing, partly
since modern welfare legislation was introduced in the first decades
of the century in order to solve many of the social problems which
up to that time had been dealt with by the clauses of the poor law.